Power outages cause concern for residents relying on medical equipment

RICHFIELD, Minn. (FOX 9) - While power outages are an inconvenience to some, they’re potentially life-threatening to others. The storms that rolled through the metro Monday night left 150,000 customers without electricity at one point.

The outages rendered electronic medical equipment useless, leaving some concerned for their health.

"I’ve been up since 12:30 last night, afraid that if I go to sleep I can’t stop breathing," said Alonzo Pollard, of Richfield, who recently underwent two heart surgeries and uses a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. "That machine helps me breathe. It helps the pumping of the oxygen to the heart, and once I can’t take that it makes it hard for me to breathe and I can die in my sleep."

His complex, Woodlake Park Apartments on DuPont Avenue South, lost power around 7 o’clock Monday night, he said.

Another resident, Craig Goodwin, said his wife had to leave to spend the night at her son’s home. She uses an electronic nebulizer to treat a chronic breathing condition.

"If there’s no power and she does have an attack there’s no way to plug it in," he said. "If there’s no power, nobody helping us and she goes into an attack and I can’t get her on her neb[ulizer] machine I would have to call the emergency [responders] and have them bring her to the hospital."

In a statement Tuesday night, Xcel Energy said customers with medical needs can request a designation on their account. Although it doesn’t guarantee immediate restoration, it helps, the utility said.